Maryland Woman's Long Wait for Recalled Samsung Phone Refund

A Maryland woman whose cellphone was recalled says she got no help from Samsung customer service when she tried to return it.

Gwen Morris of Hyattsville said she is a loyal Samsung customer. When Samsung recalled the Galaxy Note7, she hesitated giving hers back.

“I was thinking at first, ‘Well, I'm not having any problems with my phone,’” she said.

But after seeing pictures of damage caused by phones that burst into flames, she decided to exchange her phone for the replacement. Weeks later, the replacement phone was recalled, Morris said.

So she decided she wanted a refund.

“I think I had made like seven or eight calls,” she said. “I’ve talked to supervisors, and everybody was telling me it always seemed like it was one thing that didn’t go through.”

Morris said she never received the special fireproof box she was instructed to use to return the phone. She said she needed the refund to buy another phone.

After NBC4 Responds reached out to Samsung, Morris got a call within hours.

“Three days later, after I received the call that they were going to credit me back my money, the money was in my account,” she said.

“We are sorry to hear about Ms. Morris’ experience and have worked with her to resolve the situation to her satisfaction,” Samsung said in a statement. “Consumer safety remains our highest priority, and we’ve had overwhelming participation in the U.S. Note7 refund and exchange program so far, with more than 97 percent of all recalled Galaxy Note7 devices returned. Anyone who has not yet returned their device should immediately power it down and contact their carrier to obtain a refund or exchange or visit our website at Samsung.com/US/Note7Recall for more information.”

“I was just so happy and so relieved and I honestly believe that if my girlfriend had never told me to reach out to Channel 4, I would still be going back and forth, back and forth,” Morris said.

Samsung didn’t offer a reason for not sending out the box in a timely manner.